For today’s writing prompt, A Sudden Chill, you will want to use your senses. Keep reading to see the full writing prompt and my completed version of it.
Today’s Writing Prompt: A Sudden Chill
Today, write about a character who feels a sudden chill go up their spine. Consider: Where did the sudden chill come from? Are they scared or just cold? Or did it come from something else?
Completed Version of Today’s Writing Prompt
A Sudden Chill, by K.E. Creighton
When I heard the screams coming from the edge of the forest, I felt a sudden chill move up my spine. I immediately stood up and walked around the hedge I was crouched behind. The screams sounded like they were coming from a small child, probably no older than ten or eleven. But they stopped as soon as I stood up to listen more intently.
What was a small child doing out here in the middle of hunting season? Wait. Was that a child I heard screaming? Or something else? It had to have been a child. It couldn’t be anything else. Right? Either way, they stopped screaming, so they must have an adult with them to help them—
A squirrel spooked me as it started rustling the leaves of a branch above where I was standing. Stupid squirrel. I took in a deep breath and held it as I stood as still as I could, to listen. And keep listening. For anything. Anything unusual or spine-tingling like that scream. But there was nothing. Nothing. More nothing.
And then, I heard another shriek. This one was much more piercing than the last. This time, I didn’t hesitate. I secured the safety of my hunting rifle and started running through the dense trees toward the screams with its stock in my grip.
When I finally reached the edge of the forest floor, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
…
[All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton and Creighton’s Compositions LLC. The above work is a piece of fiction. All names and locations referred to are the product of the author’s imagination and are used entirely for fictional purposes. Any similarities to real-life persons or places are purely coincidental.]
Notes on Completing this Writing Prompt
As a vegetarian, I’m not too keen on hunting animals, but what I wrote was a piece of fiction…so…
This was an interesting writing prompt to complete. At first, I thought of writing a scene about a winter chill caused by the cold air outside but ended up writing about a blood-curdling scream instead for some reason. Gotta love the writing process!
Pick up where my writing left off today if you wish. What did the narrator see when they reached the edge of the woods? Was it a child or someone or something else? If it was a child, why were they screaming?